It would take me time to quote studies to this effect, but I'm pretty damn sure things are changing in that sense, and I'm getting away with stuff that would have been deemed unthinkable back when I was a child (and, in fact, still are, back where I was born and raised).
I meant I don't expect the facts that I'm straight, white, and male to change. While in principle I'm glad I have the freedom to have sex with a man (and would prefer if e.g. it became illegal to fire me for doing so), I don't think I'd ever take advantage of that freedom. So the idea that it's in my own selfish interest to fight for social justice is attractive, but false (and it's a rationalisation that I used to believe, which is why I suggested you were rationalizing).
So, yeah, Imm, I won't stop you from posting your unspeakable arguments, but I'm just not interested in engaging you in them. And that's a rationalist's reaction. A normal person would simply heuristic that you're a prejudiced person looking for arguments after the fact, and a non-rationalist who's committed to "social justice" would let you know that they're not interested in hearing you out without bothering to be nearly as apologetic as I'm being. And, frankly, I can't find it in my heart to blame them.
Wow. You asked what the problem with the SJWs was, I tried to give a simple, obvious example, and you immediately pattern-matched me as a racist and decided to ignore me. That's about as good an example as I could ask for. What would you think about someone who responded the same way to the suggestion that god didn't exist, or that astrology didn't work, or that the earth was six billion years old?
(And note that the converse isn't true; I see plenty of atheists seriously engaging with religious folk, thinking about what they say and responding to their points. Scientists get frustrated by e.g. the ID folks, but I still see people patiently going over what we know and why we know it, with footnotes - sure, some will slam the door and stop thinking about it, but most are still open to the possibility that they might be wrong.)
"While in principle I'm glad I have the freedom to have sex with a man (and would prefer if e.g. it became illegal to fire me for doing so), I don't think I'd ever take advantage of that freedom."
Thing is, I'm pretty sure I would... as soon as I've finished cutting all ties with my ancestral land so that the consequences wouldn't come to bite me in some roundabout way. But I might not be that prudent or patient. Give me liberty and give me cock(adooloo)! :P
Now, for the misunderstanding:
"and you immediately pattern-matched me as a racist and ...
Now, it is said we all here pride ourselves on our intelligence, rationality, and moral sense. It is also said, however, that we are a fiercely independent bunch, and that we can let this pride of ours get the better of us. There have also been comments that the live communities that appear at meetups provide much more positive interactions than what goes on on this site's discussions; this might merit further investigation.
My point is; we've done a lot of research on how to do proper ethical and metaethical calculations, and on how to achieve self-empowerment and deal with our own akrasia, which is awesome. We've also done some work on matters of gender equality, which is very positive as well. But I haven't seen us do anything about the basic details of human interaction, what one would call "politeness" and "basic human decency". And I think it might be useful if we started tackling these, for our own sakes, that of those who surround us, and that of easing our mission along, which is, as I understand it so far, to save the world (from existential risk (at the hands of (unfriendly and self-modifying) artificial intelligence))).
What inspired me to propose this post was a video I just saw from Hank Green of the famed and fabled vlogbrothers. I hold these two individuals in very high esteem, and I would expect many here to share my feelings about them, on account of their values and sensibilities largely overlapping with ours; namely the sense that intelligence, knowledge and curiosity are awesome, and that intellectuals ought to use their power to help improve themselves and the world around them.
Here it is; I hope you enjoy it